Manufacture of mouthpiece cigarettes



F. F. RUAU ETAL May 17, 1955 h MANUFACTURE OF MOU'I'I-I'PIE'CE CIGARETTES 2 Sheets- Sheet 1 Filed Jan. 29, 1954 '//v VENTORS ATTORNEYS] Filed Jan. 29 1954 May 17, 1955 F. F. RUAU ETAL 2,708,440

MANUFACTURE OF MOUTHPIECE CIGARETTES '2 Sheets-Sheet 2 ATTORNEYS Unite MANUFACTURE OF MOUTHPIECE CIGARETTES Application January 29, 1954, Serial No. 407,042

Claims priority, application Great Britain February 19, 1953 3 Claims. (Cl. 131-61) This invention concerns improvements in or relating to the manufacture of mouthpiece cigarettes.

By the expression mouthpiece cigarette is meant a cigarette in which a tobacco portion and a mouthpiece portion are arranged end to end within a common wrapper. A mouthpiece portion may consist of a piece of filtering material, or a hollow tube, or any other suitable piece of material which is difierent from the tobacco contained in the remainder of the cigarette or any combination of the foregoing. For convenience any such mouthpiece portions will hereinafter be referred to as stubs.

One way of making mouthpiece cigarettes consists in feeding a continuous unwrapped tobacco filler lengthwise and cutting it at intervals into separate lengths, accelerating each such length in turn so as to space the lengths apart, inserting stubs into the spaces between tobacco lengths, and enclosing the resulting composite filler in a paper wrapper to form an endless composite rod which is then cut at appropriate intervals to form individual mouthpiece cigarettes. One example of a method of and apparatus for making mouthpiece cigarettes on this principle is disclosed in the United States patent application Serial No. 226,187 of D. W. Molins, filed May 14, 1951 In that construction the cut lengths can be treated in this way because the tobacco stream, before cutting, is subjected to lateral compression which not only gives it suflicient rigidity to enable it to pass through a guide tube before being cut, but also is such as to consolidate the stream to an extent such that the cut lengths can be accelerated in the manner described in the specification referred to, without undue breaking down or disintegration of the ends of the cut lengths.

Somewhat heavy lateral compression such as that imparted to the tobacco stream in the construction according to the application referred to, while necessary to enable the cut lengths to be accelerated in the manner described in that specification, has the disadvantage that it tends to break the tobacco shreds themselves. Further, it will be appreciated that the more the tobacco filler is compressed laterally, the more tobacco will be required to produce a tobacco filler which will completely occupy the volume of a cigarette of given diameter. If therefore the lateral compression is increased, then in order to obtain the same feel between the tobacco and the outer wrapper, correspondingly more tobacco is needed to fill the Wrapper.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for making mouthpiece cigarettes in which spaces can be formed between successive portions of unwrapped tobacco without the necessity of subjecting the tobacco to heavy lateral compression before cutting, and in this way not only to reduce breakage of the tobacco but also to enable a cigarette of a given size to be made with less tobacco than is required where the unwrapped tobacco, before cutting, is subjected to such a degree of lateral compression as is necessary to enable the cut States Patent ice lengths to be handled and accelerated as mentioned above.

Further according to the invention there is provided in apparatus for manufacturing mouthpiece cigarettes, means to feed endwise a continuous stream of unwrapped tobacco, means to sever the stream at intervals so as to separate from the leading end portion of the stream successive leading lengths, a conveyor arranged aside the path of the stream and arranged to move faster than the stream, transfer means adapted to engage each said length after severance and to move said length in such a manner that it has a component of movement in an endwise direction and another component that moves it sideways out of line with the stream and to deliver said length onto said conveyor while the said length is moving endwise at substantially the speed of the conveyor, whereby successive lengths are delivered onto said conveyor at spaced intervals, and means to insert stubs between said lengths.

Still further according to the invention there is provided in apparatus for manufacturing mouthpiece cigarettes, means to feed endwise a continuous stream of unwrapped tobacco, a conveyor offset from said stream and arranged to move in the same general direction as (e. g. parallel to) and at a faster speed than the said stream, means to sever the stream at intervals so as to cut off a leading length thereof, transfer means adapted to engage each such leading length after severance and transfer it onto the said conveyor, said transfer means being arranged to move sideways towards the said conveyor and at the same time forwardly at such a speed as to increase the forward speed of a length which is being transferred onto the conveyor, so that such length when delivered onto the conveyor has a forward speed greater than that of the stream (e. g. substantially the speed of the conveyor) whereby successive lengths delevered onto the conveyor are spaced apart endwise thereupon, and means to insert stubs into the spaces so formed.

The transfer means may comprise a pusher arranged for swinging movement so as to push the said lengths of tobacco through an arcuate path while the said lengths remain substantially parallel to the path of the stream. The said pusher may be arranged to move, at the moment when it first engages the cut length, with a component in the direction of movement of the stream and at substantially the same speed in said direction, and to move substantially wholly in the direction of movement of the said conveyor at the moment when it delivers the said length onto the said conveyor.

Apparatus according to the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a plan view showing apparatus for transferring cut lengths of tobacco onto a paper web.

Figure 2 is an end elevation of Figure 1, and

Figure 3 is a side elevation showing some of the parts shown in Figure 1, and also showing a device for placing stubs on the paper web.

The apparatus is adapted to be fitted to an ordinary cigarette-making machine of the continuous rod type in which tobacco is showered from a hopper onto a moving tape which carries it forwardly as a stream.

The tobacco stream, in a relatively loose and uncompressed state, is delivered from the tape (not shown) through a guide tube 4 onto the upper surface of a fixedplate 5, which surface is smooth and highly polished to allow the unwrapped tobacco stream to slip over it easily. The guide tube 4 is wide enough to allow the stream to pass through it easily, and serves principally to hold the stream during the cutting operation about to be described. I

When a desired length of the tobacco stream has passed onto the plate 5, the stream is cut by a knife 6 which has a narrow cutting blade so as to pass quickly across the end of the guide tube 4 and reduce the holdingup of the tobacco in the tube as much as possible. At the same time the leading end of the tobacco length which is being cut moves against a stop "1' which prevents undesired forward movement of the tobacco and locates the cut length correctly on the plate 5.

A pusher bar 8 is pivotally carried above and just clear of the plate by a pair of swinging arms 9 and 10 mounted on vertical shafts 11 and 12 which are arranged to be rotated so as to swing the arms 9 and 10 in the direction shown by the arrow. One or the other of the shafts 11 and 12 may be driven in any suitable and convenient way from the main drive of the machine, and the drive transmitted to the other shaft through gears 13 and 14 on the shafts and an idler 15, these three gears being indicated in Figure l by chaindotted circles.

The purpose of the transfer bar 8 is to transfer cut lengths of tobacco from the plate 5 onto a continuous moving paper web 16 which is led over a roller 17 onto a band 18 which carries the paper at a speed greater than that at which the tobacco stream is fed through the guide tube 4 onto the plate 5. The paper web as best seen in Figure 2 passes alongside and partly beneath the edge of the plate 5 so that a tobacco length pushed over the edge of the plate is deposited onto the centre of the paper web.

The rotation of the shafts 9 and It) is so timed that the pusher bar 8 reaches the position shown in full 7 lines at the instant the tobacco stream is cut, and as can be seen from Figure l the bar 8 at that position just engages the cut length of tobacco. At that instant the bar has a component of movement in the direction of movement of the tobacco stream through the guide tube, and of the paper web, at substantially the same speed at which the stream moves onto-the plate 5. Continued rotation of the shafts 11 and 12 brings the arms 9 and 10 to the position shown in chain-dotted lines in Figure 1, and the bar 8 to a position at which its edge is in line with the edge of the plate 5. The bar 8 is also shown in chain-dotted lines in this position, but for clearness it is shown extending slightly beyond the edge of the plate 5.

This movement of the bar from the position shown in full line to that indicated in chain-dotted lines causes it to push a cut length of tobacco across the plate 5 sideways and simultaneously forward in the direction of movement of the paper web 16, and to deliver it onto the paper web when its movement is almost wholly endwise in the direction of the paper web. It will be seen that during this movement, due to the angular movement of the arms 9 and llti the forward speed of the bar, and hence of the tobacco length, is increased, and the parts are so arranged that this increase of speed is such that by the time the tobacco length is delivered to the paper web 16 its forward speed is substantially the same as that of the paper web.

During the movement of the bar 8 from the full line to the chain-dotted line position as shown in Figure 1, the stop 7, which is mounted on a pivoted arm 19, is pushed aside by the bar to the position shown in dotand-dash lines in Figure 1. After the bar 8 has slipped past the stop, the arm 19 is pulled back by the spring 20 to the position shown in full lines, which position is determined by an adjustable screw 21 on an extension 22 of the arm 19.

Continued rotation of the shafts 11 and 12 bring the bar once more to a position at which it engages a further length just cut from the stream.

A dabber .22 on a pivoted flap 23 is arranged to move down onto a cut length as soon as the latter is pushed oif the plate 5, to ensure that the length is firmly and immediately deposited onto the paper web. The dabber is operated by a cam 24 which presses down the flap 23 against the action of a spring 25.

A guide 26 is positioned above the paper web to check sideways movement of the cut length and to assist in positioning it on the paper web.

Due to the acceleration of each cut length of tobacco 5 to the higher speed of the 'p'aperweb, successive lengths are spaced apart from each other on the paper web, the difierence in' speed between the paper web and the tape on which the uncut stream is carried being suitably chosen to cause spaces to be formed which are each sufficient to accommodate astub of the desired length.

The spaced lengths of cut tobacco are carried by the paper web beneath a stub wheel 27 which receives stubs from the flutes of a fluted drum 28 and carries them by means of retractablev pushers 29 down to the paper web to deliver them one at a time into spaces between the cut lengths of tobacco.

This stub-wheel is the same as that disclosed in United States patent application Serial No. 226,187 and works in the same way.

The insertion of stubs into the spaces on the paper web completes the formation of a continuous composite filler of tobacco portions and stubs in alternation. This composite filler is then carried by the paper web 16 beneath a tongue and through folding devices (not shown) in which the paper is folded and secured about the stubs and tobacco portions to form a continuous composite rod. The rod is then cut at suitable intervals to form individual mouthpiece cigarettes.

It will be seen that by means of the apparatus described, cut lengths of unwrapped tobacco are accelerated to the speed of the paper web before they are placed on the latter, and that they are moreover accelerated by a bodily sideways and forward swinging movement across the fixed plate 5. The plate 5 can be made extremely smooth so that there is very little friction between it and the stream while the leading end of the latter is moving over it endwise before cutting, or while a cut length is being pushed across it by the pusher 8. There is therefore very little disturbance to the structure of either the cut lengths or the uncut stream.- In particular the cut lengths and the stream are not subjected to any pulling action which might tend to draw them out lengthwise. In consequence it is possible in this way to deal with a tobacco stream which is of relatively loose construction, and the stream need not, therefore, be subjected to such a degree of lateral compression as is required in an arrangement such for example as that disclosed in United States patent application Serial No. 226,187.

What we claim as our invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In apparatus for manufacturing mouthpiece cigarettes, means to feed endwise a continuous stream of unwrapped tobacco, a conveyor offset from said stream and arranged to move in the same general direction as and at a faster speed than the said stream, means to sever the stream at intervals so as to cut off a leading length thereof, transfer means adapted to engage each such leading length after severance and transfer it onto the said conveyor, said transfer means being arranged to move sideways towards the said conveyor and at the same time forwardly at such a speed as to increase the forward speed of a length which is being transferred onto the conveyor, so that such length when delivered onto the conveyor has a forward speed greater than that of the stream whereby successive lengths delivered onto the conveyor are spaced apart endwise thereupon, and means to insert stubs into the spaces so formed.

2. Apparatus as claimed "in claim 1 wherein the trans fer means comprises a pusher arranged for swinging movement so as to push the said lengths of tobacco through an arcuate path while the said lengths remain substantially parallel to the path of the stream.

3. Apparatus as claimed in claim 2 wherein the pusher is arranged to move at the moment when it first engages the cut length, with a component in" the direction of move 2,708,440 5 6 ment of the stream and at substantially the same speed References Cited in the file of this patent in said direction, and to move substantially wholly in UNITED STATES PATENTS the direction of movement of the said conveyor at the moment when it delivers the said length onto th said r 2,335,747 w s Nov. 30, 1943 conveyor. 5 9 Pohchansky July 22, 1952 2,622,602 Molins Dec. 23, 1952 

